Burton Albion 4 Burscough 1

Burton Albion progressed into the third round of the FA Cup and a mouth-watering home clash with Manchester United on the back of a comprehensive demolition of fellow non-leaguers Burscough.

Nigel Clough's Nationwide Conference outfit, who had previously reached the third round in 1956 and 1985, had two goals from Keith Gilroy, plus strikes from Darren Stride and Shaun Harrad, to thank for victory over their UniBond League Premier Division visitors, whose second-half consolation goal came courtesy of David Eaton.

The visitors bared their teeth first, with Tony Gray bursting clear with 28 seconds gone, only to fire into the Albion sidenetting.

Soon after, the hosts took the lead. Adam Tong was caught in possession by Harrad, who fed former Republic of Ireland Under-21 international Gilroy. The 22-year-old cut in from the left and slotted a tidy eighth-minute finish under Matt Boswell.

Injury was then added to insult as Tong, who required four minutes' treatment following Harrad's challenge, was stretchered off before the restart to be replaced by Jeff Underwood.

With 16 minutes gone, Burscough slipped further behind as Harrad found space on the left and did well to pick out Stride, whose sidefooted finish clipped Boswell's fingers on its way into the back of the net.

Burscough looked to have pulled a goal back in the 26th minute, only for David Eaton's strike to be ruled out by an offside flag before the Brewers survived another scare as goalkeeper Saul Deeney denied Martin Crowder at point-blank range and Chris Hall blocked Liam Blakeman's follow-up on the line.

As the end-to-end contest swung again, former Darlington player Gilroy netted his second goal and Albion's third in the 37th minute after a mazy dribble.

After the interval, a Hall header hit the Burscough crossbar in the 52nd minute before Deeney tipped an Eaton shot onto the post, although the Linnets frontman eventually reduced the deficit to 3-1 when he fired through a thicket of Albion legs on the hour after Deeney had sparked chaos by fumbling a corner.

A courageous save from Deeney at Crowder's feet kept the Brewers' two-goal advantage intact, before Andy Barlow went close for the visitors.

But Harrad wrapped up the tie by tapping home after Jon Shaw's header had hit the post in the 84th minute, sparking joyous scenes on and off the pitch.